


happiness is a warm brunch

by middlecyclone



Category: Tanis (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8888764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlecyclone/pseuds/middlecyclone
Summary: MK loves brunch, but she’s almost never able to find the time to go, which is why she's especially mad when Nic Silver ruins it for her.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Burning_Nightingale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_Nightingale/gifts).



> For Burning_Nightingale, who had so many fantastic prompts it basically killed me to pick just one. I had so much fun writing for these characters and this concept. Happy Holidays!

MK loves brunch.

Like, a lot. Like, probably more than she should. It's just that brunch is basically the perfect meal in every way; for starters, you get to drink coffee and alcohol at the same time, and the alcohol usually consists of mimosas.

And MK  _ loves  _ mimosas.

There’s more to it than that, of course. Brunch is always late enough that MK, who is basically nocturnal at this point, doesn't have to set an alarm to wake up, but it's early enough that she still has time to fit the odd squash game into her weekend afternoon. Plus, MK loves omelettes and she loves French toast and she especially loves eating omelettes or French toast or sometimes both while sitting around with a group of friends and catching up on their lives before it all inevitably devolves into an extended argument about  _ Star Wars _ versus  _ Star Trek _ . 

And she loves her friends. More than she loves French toast, even, which is saying something. She doesn’t see them as much as she would like, because her job can be unpredictable and demanding, but whenever she does manage to find the time to see them all she makes sure to leave all her work at home on her laptop. MK knows she can be a bit of a workaholic, but when she takes a break she tries to  _ really  _ take it. 

And it’s a little thing, but she considers brunch a special enough occasion that she always takes the excuse to wear her favorite light blue floral sundress and a pair of impractical shoes from her extensive rotation, regardless of the weather. MK appreciates that she gets to do her job while sitting on her couch wearing sweatpants, she really does, but she likes dressing up every so often, too. It's hard to be taken seriously as an information specialist when you're wearing a knee-length sleeveless dress with periwinkle daisies on it, so MK seizes any alternative chances she can get.

MK loves brunch, but she’s almost never able to find the time to go, which is why she's especially mad when Nicodemus  _ fucking  _ Silver ruins it for her.

It starts out auspiciously enough: there was almost no wait at the restaurant, she got three  _ very  _ nice compliments on her hair, and her friend Naomi told a truly hilarious story about one of her clients. It’s not until she's ordered herself some strawberry French toast and started in on her second cup of truly divine dark roast that everything starts to fall apart.

Geoff Van Sant calls.

MK thinks about not answering it, she really does, but she only gave Geoff her contact information after the second time Nic went missing in the woods and impressed upon him that it was to be used in the direst of emergencies only. In general, MK doesn't especially like or trust Geoff, but she trusts him when it comes to Nic, and Nic being in trouble is really the only thing he would ever consider a dire enough emergency to merit actually calling her, so she makes a vaguely apologetic gesture to the rest of the table and picks up.

“What,” she says brusquely. “This better be good.”

“It isn’t,” Geoff says back, and he’s–panting, almost, which is not a good sign. “Nic’s gone.”

“Gone where?” MK asks.

“I don’t know,” Geoff says, “but I’m pretty sure it’s the woods, because–well.”

MK thinks that it’s probably the woods, too, because–well. Because Nic hasn’t been doing so well lately, because he keeps sleepwalking and not answering calls for days at a time and whenever he does pick up he’s been so scatterbrained, so out of touch, that she feels sick to her stomach even thinking about it. Because Tanis is getting to him, despite his constant protests, and she knows that there’s no way this story can end well.

“I’ll meet you at the trailhead,” MK says, and hangs up, because she’ll do just about anything for Nic at this point, even when he’s not paying her, which is definitely the saddest thing about her life right now. Well, besides the fact that she’s not going to get even a single bite of her strawberry French toast.

“Sorry, guys,” she says with a wince, “I’ve gotta bail. Nic is missing.”

Most of her friends have normal jobs that don't involve life-or-death calls for information on Sunday mornings, but she's told them enough stories about work that they pretty much understand the stakes at this point. Trevor specifically makes an appropriately horrified face at her, because although he's a freelance artist with absolutely zero understanding of the dark web, he's also a huge fan of the PNWS podcasts and is possibly more invested in Nic’s safety than MK herself. 

She drops enough money on the table to cover both her meal and a generous tip, and sighs. “Can you get a box for my food?” she asks the group at large. “I probably won’t be back to get it, but–”

“Go,” Naomi says firmly, “I’ll keep it for you, you can come by later to pick it up.”

“Thank you,” MK says, “thank you so much,” and flies out of the restaurant.

MK prides herself on her work-life balance, on keeping all the dangerous shit on the internet, where it’s far away from both her and her friends. And before this job she’s always been successful, but Nic and Tanis are bleeding over more and more into her everyday life, until times like this come where she’s running out on brunch to look for a client, and preparing to hike into some notoriously dangerous woods while wearing a sleeveless dress. MK isn’t sure whether it’s her fault for getting attached to Nic, or Tanis’s fault for being too big and too dangerous. Either way, she’s not all that happy about it.

She loves having her own time, to be her own person away from her computer; she loves that her friends have absolutely no understanding of what she does for a living, and that they don’t care to find out. She has associates online she discusses best practices and new techniques and industry secrets with, of course, but those are her online friends, her work friends. She’s known Naomi and Trevor and Sam and Isaac since college, and they only know and care about MK-the-person, with no consideration for MK-the-hacker at all. They knew her when she was an awkward college freshman with terrible bangs and no social skills, and they know her now when she’s a too-sarcastic information specialist who lives on her computer, and they’ve put up with her from start to finish.

Except now MK-the-hacker is skipping out on brunches for MK-the-person, and neither version of her likes the direction that this has the potential to go in.

She gets to the meeting spot and parks haphazardly. Geoff is already there, pacing back and forth next to his Jeep, looking worried. 

“Hey,” MK says, jumping out of her car. “Let’s go.”

Geoff turns around and stares at her. “In those shoes?” he says skeptically. MK looks down; she’s still wearing her impractical brunch wedges.

“Right,” she says, “fuck, yeah, probably not,” and crosses over to her trunk, where thankfully she’s got her gym bag in there, with some possibly-clean socks and her squash shoes stashed inside.

“What’s with the getup?” Geoff asks her as she’s tying her sneakers. 

“I was out with friends,” she says shortly, and he looks dumbfounded, as though he’s never considered that she might ever go out or, indeed, have friends. “I can’t do anything about the dress,” she says, straightening up, “but I should be able to at least walk without twisting an ankle now. You ready?”

“Let’s go,” Geoff agrees, and they set off into the woods. MK’s never actually been truly inside them before; her work on the Tanis project is definitely more informational than practical, which is how she prefers it. But this is a special circumstance, and besides, she couldn’t exactly let Geoff go gallivanting off into the woods by himself. Nobody should go into these woods alone, not anymore, not even someone who manages to annoy her on every imaginable level like Geoff does.

They’re silent for a long while, Geoff navigating his way through the trees with practiced surety, MK following half a step behind him, staring at the ground ahead of her in order to avoid tripping over fallen tree branches.

“Where do you think he is?” MK asks eventually.

“He’s probably by the wall,” Geoff says tightly. “At least, that’s what I’m hoping. That’s where he always seems to turn up, by that fucking Pacifica Station.”

MK nods. “And you know where that is? Like, relative to where we are now?”

“More or less,” Geoff says, “inasmuch as you can ever know where anything is, in this stupid forest.”

“Good,” MK says, “because I for one have no fucking clue where we are.”

Geoff laughs at that, and then there’s another few minutes of silence, before MK’s curiosity gets the best of her and she asks Geoff, “Do you ever think about just–well, about just not being involved in this? Like, you were in the military. Surely you’ve had more than enough danger and violence in your life already.”

Geoff snorts at that. “No shit,” he says. “Yeah, I’ve thought about it.”

“Well, do you think you’re ever going to just quit?” MK presses. 

“I don’t think I  _ can _ quit any more,” Geoff confesses, brutally honest. “I’m in this mess as long as Nic is.”

MK blinks in surprise. “Really? Why?”

“Well, it’s Nic,” Geoff says, as if that explains everything, and it actually almost does. “It was–well, you remember what it was like when he went into the cabin, the first time. It was really bad.”

“I know,” MK says feelingly, “God, I know.”

“I was sure he was dead,” Geoff tells her, conversationally, his tone far too light for his words. “It felt … inevitable, almost. My dad died last year, and then Karl just a few months ago. I was like, of course Nic is leaving me, too. Of course that’s how this is going to go.”

MK is silent, then, unsure what to say, but Geoff just keeps going on his own. “When he came back that time, it felt like a second chance, for  _ me _ , even though obviously that’s not what it was. It feels like–it feels like I  _ have  _ to keep Nic safe, that I  _ have  _ to keep an eye on him, that he’s  _ my  _ responsibility to guard and protect and escort through the forest. So when he asks me to jump, I ask how high. And when he does things like–well, like this, I don’t let myself really, truly worry.”

MK frowns. “Wait, what?”

“I mean, of course I worry,” Geoff explains, “but I don’t let myself think he’s dead. I have to really feel, deep down, that he’s going to come back safe and sound, every single time he leaves. Because in my head, if anything bad happens to him it’s all on me, and–I can’t think like that, not anymore. It’s too much.”

“It wouldn’t be your fault,” MK says, but her voice sounds small in the huge expanse of the old-growth forest, and she knows Geoff hears its smallness too.

Geoff shrugs at her, deflecting. “I hope we never have to find out,” is all he says, voice tight and sad, until he visibly shrugs it off and stands up straighter, squares his shoulders, forcibly drags a half-smile onto his face. “So what about you?”

“What  _ about  _ me?” MK asks.

“Do you want to quit?” Geoff asks. “You do, don’t you? That’s why you asked me.”

MK bites her lower lip, and thinks about her answer. “I–yeah,” she says, “I do want to get out, at least a little. But I don’t think I can, either.”

“Because of Nic?” Geoff asks.

“Yeah,” MK says, “pretty much. I wish–well, I wish I didn’t care, but I do care, so here we are.”

They trudge through the underbrush in silence for a few more minutes. MK keeps stumbling, even with her eyes peeled for fallen tree branches, even in her sneakers. She’s starting to feel shaky, from the damp chill air and drinking caffeine on an empty stomach and anxiety for Nic. 

“So are you and Nic... ” Geoff asks abruptly into the hush, “Are you two, you know... “

“No,” MK says immediately, “no, we’re … no.”

“Do you want to be?” Geoff asks, and MK rolls her eyes at him.

“It is quite literally the opposite of your business,” she snipes, “but–no. I care about Nic, but not like that.”

Geoff doesn’t exactly smile, but his mouth twitches in a way MK hadn’t been expecting, and she begins to wonder about that. She starts to ask, “So are  _ you  _ and Nic…” 

“We’re almost there,” Geoff cuts her off, and MK suddenly thinks that she understands a few things she’s been missing.

“Is that Nic?” she says, seeing a tiny figure off in the distance, wandering farther from them.

“I–maybe,” Geoff says, and takes off running towards possibly-Nic. MK follows, a little slower, because she’s in pretty good shape but it’s still been a few years since her last half marathon. Besides, she doesn’t trust herself not to slip on rotting leaves and break her leg. She’s always been athletic, but she’s never been graceful.

“Nic!” Geoff is shouting, over and over again, and the figure stops and turns back towards them and MK can see a face, can see that it’s clearly Nic, and the knot of terrified tension in her chest loosens.

“Guys?” Nic says, as they draw nearer and nearer. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, obviously,” MK pants. “Nic, what are  _ you  _ doing here?”

“I–I don’t know,” Nic says, a little lost, “I was just–” and then they’re both finally standing right in front of him.

“Oh my God,” Geoff says desperately,  his voice breaking a little, “you’re okay–”

Nic is covered in dirt and his clothes are ripped, but aside from that he looks mostly unharmed, if incredibly exhausted. “I knew you would come,” he’s saying softly, staring intently up at Geoff, “I  _ knew _ it,” and MK takes half a moment to be almost offended that she’s being left out before Geoff is taking Nic’s battered face in his hands and kissing him, softly but fervently, gently but as though the world is ending around them. 

“Jesus fuck, guys,” MK says, disgusted, “is this really the time?”

They ignore her completely. She lets them keep kissing for a moment, and then another longer moment, and then halfway through the third moment she loses it and throws a pinecone at their heads. 

“Come on,” MK says, “not that this isn’t touching and romantic and everything, but I’m hungry as fuck and I would really prefer not to be in the murder forest a second longer than I have to be.”

“That’s fair,” Geoff says, a little breathless, still staring deeply into Nic’s eyes. Nic smiles up at him, weary but bright and so  _ incredibly  _ happy. MK hates them both so much, she really does.

“You’re buying me a mimosa,” she tells them, as they pick their way delicately out of the forest. “Possibly several mimosas.”

“I never took you for a mimosa kind of girl,” Nic says.

“Me neither,” Geoff agrees.

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” MK tells him, and then stops to think. That’s been on purpose of course, but she’s kind of stuck with Nic for the time being, and now with Geoff as well, by association. The walls between her lives are starting to crumble, and it might be time to just give up and break them down properly, on her own terms, while she still has the chance to do it as neatly as possible.

“We were only out there for an hour or so,” MK says reluctantly, because her friends have surely left the restaurant already, but she’s still starving, and Naomi and Sam and Trevor and Isaac aren’t the only friends she has in Seattle, not anymore. “How do you guys feel about brunch?”

  
  



End file.
